explosion in san bruno. more than one hundred homes damaged or destroyed. good morning... it's friday, the tenth of september. i'm john kessler. and i'm sydnie kohara. this is where it all began in san bruno. a crater filled with water ... it's the hole where a natural gas line exploded into flames yesterday evening. at least one person is dead. fifty- three homes are destroyed.. 120 others are damaged. the fire is inside this area on the peninsula: the general perimeter starting at sneath lane... and looping around claremont drive and glenview drive.

we have three reporters on the story. simon perez is at the fire command center. julie watts is at one of the evacuation centers. and we'll begin anne makovec... in the san bruno neighborhood where it all began. anne. "..." "..." anne makovec in san bruno as of last night, about five as of last night, about five

thousand people in san bruno were without power. jeff smith with p-g-and-e joins us live by phone now to give us an update. good morning jeff. thank you jeff smith with pg & e.

san bruno city manager connie jackson says the most immediate task, is trying to account for all the people who lived in the

neighborhood. "the city organization is fully mobilized to assist residents. our primary concern at this point is identifying and locating all of the residents of the affected area." the city is urging people whose homes are in the fire area, to register by calling this number... 650-616- 7180. the city wants to account for as many people as possible, as the search for more victims begins today. again, the number to call is 650-616-7180. cbs five photo journalist don ford was able to get near the spot where the fire started. he says it was a chaotic scene. "power lines are all down. thee's glass and dirt in the street. close to the epicenter where this main ruptured, the the the energy was so intense that the street has been reduced

to nothing but a dirt path now. it's still wide, but there s nothing left at all of the asphalt. (q) just melted off?" "melted, burned off straight down ot the dirt. the sidewalks 3 inches thick concrete, sometimes 3, 4 feet wide is buckled up and just debris. the heat, the intensityof that was something i haven't seen in a long time and i've been shooting news for a very long time." safety assessment teams plan to meet at six o'clock this morning to review the damage. here's a recap of what s happening in san bruno. a natural gas line exploded into flames just after six o'clock yesterday evening. at least one person has been confirmed dead. search teams are going through the rubble this morning. dozens of people were injured.

several of them are in critical condition. fifty three homes were destroyed. 120 others are damaged. the exact cause of the explosion is not yet known. people in the area told cbs five they had noticed a gas odor for several days before the explosion. this morning, acting governor abel maldonado will tour the disaster area. he has declared a state of emergency in san mateo county. people who live in the fire area are asked to contact san bruno officials, who are trying to account for everyone. all san bruno park elementary schools and parkside junior high school are closed today. but capuchino high will be open. blood donations are being sought for victims of the explosion. the plan today is to search for potential casualties. that process won't be able to begin until the sun comes up...

and when the situation is safe for rescue workers and emergency crews. "our problem is obviously with the high-pressure gas line. we could not get close to that line until they could shut down that pipeline... currently, they are shutting down distribution lines, so we still have residuals in the gas line. so at the last briefing, we still were not able to access the area fully." search dogs will reportedly be used in the effort. the city of san bruno is still working on getting an offic search dogs will reportedly be used in that search effort. the city of san bruno still working on getting an official head count to determine how many people in that neighborhood are missing. quite a few schools in san bruno as john mentioned will be closed today. these closures include all elementary schools in the san bruno park school district, parkside intermediate school will also be closed for

the day. but again, capuchino high school will remain open. 4:40. we'll have a lot more on this. first let's check weather and traffic. elizabeth, how's the commute? >> good morning, guys. i want to go back out to san bruno and talk about the road closures still affecting that area. first the 280 is completely unaffected. you can use 280 and 101 in the area. the only thing closed right now is the skyline boulevard off-ramp. the san bruno avenue off-ramp to north- and southbound 280 was opened. also closed some smaller streets in the area. highway 35 now shut down between sneath lane and 280. that's this stretch right here. just a short time ago, they were actually able to re-open the skyline boulevard that stretch through pacifica. we'll talk about alternates coming up. tracy has a check on wind conditions right now. >> hey, thanks, elizabeth. that particular location winds

aren't a concern this morning. fairly light less than 3 miles an hour, conditions in the upper 50s, mostly clear with light winds around the bay. and the only locations where we're seeing a lot of clouds and fog is along the coastline. for afternoon, another nice day and another warm day this afternoon. inland conditions warming up 10 degrees, 80 to 88 degrees. 65 to 79 around the bay winds will pick up this afternoon. watchy fog and sunshine at the coast. we'll have your weekend forecast in just a few moments. thank you. it is 4:42. a number of story of quick escapes from the fire. >> coming up next, one man gets out just before his house burns to the ground. ,,,,

in san bruno. store the red cross has set up an emergency shelter for evacuees from the explosion and the fire in san bruno. julie watts was at the scene of the explosion shortly afterward. she is at the emergency shelter. good morning. >> reporter: we are here at the san bruno veterans memorial center. there are 16 evacuees staying inside here, another 6 down the road at the senior center.

this is where people have been coming overnight to register to write their names down on a list saying i'm alive, i'm okay. i'm here with one of the volunteers. this is christopher. christopher drove here from fremont yesterday. saw this on the news and you came here to offer your services. >> yes, ma'am. i did. i actually was coming home from work on thursday night around 11:00 p.m., i heard it on the radio on740-am so i came to san bruno because they needed volunteers. >> what have you seen since you have been here? tell us what's been happening overnight. >> i have seen a lot of emergency vehicles. i was coming up 280 south and i saw a lot of burning embers, power completely out. found my way here, signed on the books, and helped a couple of buses that they brought from the city to move in some supplies and some clothes, and not much has happened here. i mean, most of the -- when i

got here, most of the people were upstairs already sleeping. we were just moving in supplies. a lot of helpful nice people. >> reporter: there are a lot of volunteers, people coming from outside areas? >> the list that i actually signed, i was number 15. out of 25 that were on there. >> reporter: thank you very much, christopher. >> of course, ma'am. >> reporter: as you heard christopher say, there are actually more volunteers here than evacuees. last night we were giving out a phone number to call so if you are oneof the evacuees and you are okay, the red cross has put a voicemail on that, go directly to safeandwell.org. go on and you can search for people if you are searching for a loved one or family member. there is a bit of a caveat. i went on that website this morning and if you type in safe and well.org. this is a longer link and we'll

put that on our website. go to cbs5.com and you can go there register yourself. there will be services they need at this locations if they were impacted by the explosion. >> i think sydnie has a question. >> julie, what is the red cross asking for at this time? i know a lot of people want to help. are there certain supplies or donations or what are they asking for what do they need? >> reporter: i asked the same thing and they said we are getting a lot of supplies in right now. i think they will know once they start to see who is actually coming in. they are still waiting for everyone to register. it's still not clear just the magnitude of the impact of this blast in terms of how many people need services. >> all right. hey, julie, thank you very much. we'll be checking back with you. julie watts in san bruno this morning. so this all started at 6:15

yesterday evening. it was a huge explosion. and then a ball of flames shot hundreds of feet into the air. >> in fact, at first, many people thought an airplane had crashed from sfo. but it was a natural gas explosion that ripped apart this entire neighborhood. the fire -- let's take a look at a map -- is inside this particular area. a general perimeter starting at sneath lane and then looping around claremont drive and glenview drive in san bruno. the fire has also spread to vermont way. >> and as elizabeth told us, parts of skyline boulevard are still closed this morning. so here's a recap of what is happening in san bruno this morning. it was a natural gas line that exploded just after 6:00 yesterday evening. at least one person has been confirmed dead but had we understand at least two others have died. search teams are going through the rubble this morning. dozens of people were injured, several of them in critical

condition with severe burns. 53 homes destroyed. 120 others damaged. exact cause of that explosion not yet known. people in the area, though, do tell cbs 5 they had noticed a gas odor for several days before the explosion. this morning, acting governor abel maldonado is going to tour the disaster area. he has already declared a state of emergency in san mateo county. people who live in the fire area are asked to contact san bruno officials who are trying to account for everyone. all san bruno park elementary schools and parkside junior high school are closed today but capuchino high school will be open. blood donation are being sought for victims of the explosion. it is 4:48. we will continue to cover that. quite a few stories are emerging about people narrowly escaping the flames. cbs 5 spoke with rob hensel.

ist childhood home burned to the ground and his father barely made it out alive. >> my dad had to open up the garage door and drive the car through the flames to get out. back of the car is melted. the taillights are shrunker in. the bumper all warpe up. he's okay. everything else can be replaced. >> reporter: he barely made it. >> he barely made it. the car and the clothes on his back. you think it can never happen to you, but it happened. >> it is 4:49 right now. >> so let's get another check of weather and traffic. elizabeth, we understand many roads in that area are closeed. >> yeah. a stretch of skyline boulevard is closed but if you are considering using 280 you can. the traffic on the actual freeway through the area is fine, not impacted at all. in the last hour, they were able to open the off-ramp to san bruno avenue from north- and southbound 2 80.

what remains shut down is the off-ramp to skyline boulevard coming from northbound 280. so except for that off-ramp, the freeway is actually okay. but still closed is a stretch of highway 35 also called skyline boulevard completely shut down between sneath and 280. it's this stretch right here. so if you are coming down from pacifica, highway 1 is going to be a good alternate. expect extra traffic this morning so maybe extra busy. also, use westboro to cut over to use 280 and again once you get on the freeway then you're fine. so just skyline boulevard city streets are most little packed right now. tracy has been monitoring the wind conditions overnight. >> thanks. winds this morning are an issue especially if they have a few light fires out there still. today for the morning light variable winds. winds less than 3 miles an hour. so not a deal for the morning. however, for the afternoon, winds are going to increase out of the west, sea breeze coming in at about 15 miles an hour.

this friday, we do have a pretty decent forecast weather- wise. your temperatures are warming up. mid-80s in morgan hill. 77 mountain view. 78 palo alto. 62 pacifica and daly city, 64 half moon bay. east bay locations, 69 in berkeley, 74 oakland. 86 pleasant hill, 85 walnut creek. just shy of 90 degrees in antioch and brentwood with highs in the upper 80s. 87 in pittsburg. north bay locations, 82 in petaluma, 80 degrees in sonoma san francisco high temperatures in the upper 60s. seven-day forecast:

monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday, all looking good. so lots of sunshine expected. seasonal highs. that's a look at your weather. back up to you. >> thank you. a bay area blood center is asking you to help the victims injured by this explosion and horrific fire in san bruno. blood centers of the pacific has issued an emergency appeal for blood donations. to donate starting today call this number on the screen: 1-888-393-give. the most urgent need is for "o" negative blood. it can be given to anyone. apetco in san bruno is offering shelter for pets. it's located in the tanforan mall. call them: we want to let you know this

store is also working with the red cross to transport animals from fire sites to petco. >> also, a local hotel is opened up its rooms for free for victims of the fire. the alpine inn and suites in daly city offering free rooms to people who need a place to stay. to reach the hotel, call 415- 334-6969. >> 53 homes destroyed. just families -- >> just gone, without anything. so that's certainly a wonderful gesture. it is 4:53. coming up, some of the other headlines of the day, including what could be another body that was found in that east bay murder spree. >> and we'll share some pictures viewers took of the san bruno fire as it happened. ,, ,,,,,,

these are pictures from chopper 5. firefighters still pouring flames on smoldering wreckage of what used to be

homes. one firefighter says all there are left now are chimneys standing. >> there are still flames. they are still trying to figure out -- we know it was a gas line that exploded and instantly 53 homes up in flames and destroyed. >> it will be interesting to see how all those homes -- if the explosion was centralized, how all those homes went up in flames afterwards. >> the priority this morning is to find out if there are any more victims. what we're hearing is that one confirmed dead, possibly two others, as well. but we're going to get another official count at 6:00. we have been getting dozens of photos from viewers who witnessed this explosion. >> there is a photo of a viewer sent taken ton sneath lane and score yeah street. you can see the smoke rising up over the neighborhood. >> some people thought it was a

plane crash. >> originally, yes. a huge explosion. >> the sound and all the flames. another photo sent in. this was taken from lunardi's market at the skycret shopping center where they have set up an emergency command center. >> we have reporters on the scene. we are also talking to pg&e and emergency personnel. acting governor abel maldonado will be speaking on later on, as well. > >> a body has been found in a hercules home at the center of a killing spree. the remains found in the home where ricardo sales was found dead last month. his adult son is still considered missing. a bay area woman who has spent more than a year in an

iranian jail will be coming home tomorrow. sarah shourd is one of three hikers all uc-berkeley alums that iran accused of spying. iran says it's freeing shourd as an act of clemency to mark the end of ramadan. there is no word on the fate of the other two americans. and it is suspended not canceled. that's what a florida preacher is saying about his plan to burn copies of the koran on the anniversary of september 11. the pastor suspended it yesterday but now says he is rethinking that decision. he says he was promised a mosque would not go up near ground zero if he cancelled his plans. but that deal apparently was never made. it is 4:57. let's get another check of weather and traffic. elizabeth, let's look at the commute but also possibly some of the closed roads around san bruno. >> that's right. we have chopper 5 live over the scene. this is the area of skyline boulevard, sneath, you can see a lot of roads blocked in the area trying to get fire crews as much access as possible to

the area without drivers getting in the way. so let go out to a map and show you what's closed. they were able to open a couple of off-ramps -- let's go to traffic map. they were able to open some of the off-ramps from north- and southbound 280 a short time ago within the last hour or so so what remains closed is the off-ramp to skyline boulevard from northbound 280 and there is a chance they may re-open this shortly. a stretch of skyline boulevard shut down between sneath and 280. let's go to tracy. >> winds this morning light and variable not much around 3 to less than 3 miles an hour. for this afternoon, ends with are going to kick up out of the west. sea breeze around 15 miles an

80s in concord, 84 in fairfield, lower 80s in napa and santa rosa. seven-day forecast, upper 80s expected. that will be the highest temperatures inland. near 90 degrees yeah, that's for tomorrow. warmer than sunday. monday and tuesday, temperatures will start to back off a bit but still expecting quite a bit of sunshine for the coast, bay and lane. that's your weather. back to you. >> thank you. coming up in our next half hour, we are going to show you the crater left in the wake of that natural gas explosion in san bruno. what is happening there this morning. and how you can help the victims. and i'm live outside of that neighborhood where dozens of homes are destroyed. more than 100 damaged. we'll tell you what's going on live on the ground root now.